Comment by Pat Brewer
Recent announcements of deregistration by the federal Electoral Commission of several different green parties have been greeted as "a big victory" by the Australian Greens.
The active role of the Australian Greens in this deregistration process was not spelled out — an omission which, at least for the historical record, needs to be redressed.
Under the electoral law, the commissioner must, if requested, ask any party to demonstrate that it has 500 enrolled members as a minimum. (This applies only to parties which have no members in state or federal parliaments). The Australian Greens activated this provision twice, before the 1993 and 1996 federal elections, to harass other small green parties out of existence.
Green parties in Australia developed as a loose confederation of local, regional and state parties gaining their registration under related party provisions of the Electoral Act.
The 1983-registered party, the Greens (in Sydney), gave this related status to any group which adopted four basic green propositions, including a commitment to rank-and-file democracy. Members of other parties which supported these propositions were included in the membership and invited to stand for preselection ballots. Candidates were fielded nationally in the 1990 federal elections.
Within a year, moves were made to change the nature of the confederation, to exclude members of other parties and to set up a top-down national structure which would dominate all decisions about candidate selection and campaigns in those arenas where it was most likely to win — in the state and federal upper houses.
In a series of actions more suited to ALP factional practice, delegates elected by their local parties to represent them at national meetings were prevented from participating by exclusion votes taken at those meetings.
After this the Australian Greens were formed, excluding five parties (the Victorian Green Alliance, the Green Alliance Senate NSW, the Sydney Greens, the Western Suburbs Greens and the ACT Green Democratic Alliance) which refused to impose a membership proscription and were denied related party status.
Other parties, like the Western Australian and South Australian Greens, maintained related party status while having differences concerning the degree of centralisation imposed by the Australian Greens constitution. The Richmond/Clarence Greens remained within the Australian Greens project, only to be expelled in 1994 over questions of local autonomy.
Then the bureaucratic assault by the Australian Greens through the Electoral Commission began. During 1992 these groups gathered and submitted membership lists well in excess of the 500 minimum, but with only voluntary staff and no budget, this took up a lot of time and energy better spent on political activities. Because of by-elections and the 1993 federal election, the commission did not deal with this list, sending it back in late 1993 because it was too busy to pursue the matter further.
In late 1994, the same game was again triggered at the request of the Australian Greens. The five parties decided the game was stacked against them and began the process of deregistration, deciding not to field candidates in the 1996 federal elections. While the vote for the Greens improved on the 1993 low, it wasn't the huge win expected by the Australian Greens and didn't justify their claim that voters were confused where several green parties presented.
The Australian Greens have argued that any method is justified to achieve the goal of saving the planet. But the planet won't be saved by repetition of the dirty politics typical of the parliamentary arena.
[Pat Brewer is a member of the National Executive of the Democratic Socialist Party and a former member of the NSW Green Alliance.]